how much he was honoured. I told him afterwards. I never saw him so gentle and complaisant as this day. We went to tea. The duke and I walked up and down the drawing-room, conversing. The duchess still continued to shew the same marked coldness for me; for which, though I suffered from it, I made every allowance, considering the very warm part that I had taken for Douglas, in the cause in which she thought her son deeply interested. Had not her grace discovered some displeasure towards me, I should have suspected her of insensibility or dissimulation. Her grace made Dr. Johnson come and sit by her, and asked him why he made his journey so late in the year. "Why, madam, (said he,) you know Mr. Boswell must attend the Court of Session, and it does not rise till the twelfth of August." She said, with some sharpness, "I know nothing of Mr. Boswell." Poor Lady Lucy Douglas, to whom I mentioned this, observed, "She knew too much of Mr. Boswell." I shall make no remark on her grace's speech. I indeed felt it as rather too severe; but when I recollected that my punishment was inflicted by so dignified a beauty, I had that kind of consolation which a man would feel who is strangled by a silken cord. Dr. Johnson was all attention to her grace. He used afterwards a droll expression, upon her enjoying the three titles of Hamilton, Brandon, and Argyle. Borrowing an image from the Turkish empire, he called her a Duchess with three tails. He was much pleased with our visit at the castle of Inveraray. The Duke of Argyle was exceedingly polite to him, and, upon his complaining of the shelties which he had hitherto ridden being too small for him, his grace told him he should be provided with a good horse to carry him next day. Mr. John M'Aulay1 passed the evening with us at our inn. When Dr. Johnson spoke of people whose principles were good, but whose practice was faulty, Mr. M'Aulay said, he had no notion of people being in earnest in their good professions, whose practice was not suitable. The Doctor grew warm, and said, "Sir, are you so grossly ignorant of human nature, as not to know that a man may be very sincere in good principles, without having good practice ?" Dr. Johnson was unquestionably in the right; and whoever examines himself candidly, will be satisfied of it, though the 1 Grandfather of the late Lord Macaulay. VOL. III. 29 inconsistency between principles and practice is greater in some men than in others. I recollect very little of this night's conversation. I am sorry that indolence came upon me towards the conclusion of our journey, so that I did not write down what passed with the same assiduity as during the greatest part of it. Tuesday, 26th October. Mr. M'Aulay breakfasted with us, nothing hurt or dismayed by his last night's correction. Being a man of good sense, he had a just admiration of Dr. Johnson. Either yesterday morning, or this, I communicated to Dr. Johnson, from Mr. M'Aulay's information, the news that Dr. Beattie had got a pension of two hundred pounds a year. He sat up in his bed, clapped his hands, and cried, "O brave we!" a peculiar exclamation of his when he rejoices." As we sat over our tea, Mr. Home's Tragedy of Douglas " was mentioned. I put Dr. Johnson in mind, that once, in a coffeehouse, at Oxford, he called to old Mr. Sheridan, "How came you, sir, to give Home a gold medal for writing that foolish play?" and defied Mr. Sheridan to shew ten good lines in it. He did not insist they should be together; but that there were not ten good lines in the whole play. He now persisted in this. I endeavoured to defend that pathetick and beautiful tragedy, and repeated the following passage: "Sincerity, Thou first of virtues! let no mortal leave Thy onward path, although the earth should gape, To take dissimulation's winding way." JOHNSON. "That will not do, Sir. Nothing is good but what is consistent with truth or probability, which this is not. indeed, gives us a noble picture of inflexible virtue : 'Esto bonus miles, tutor bonus, arbiter idem Integer: ambigua si quando citabere testis, Incertæque rei, Phalaris licet imperet, ut sis Juvenal, Having mentioned, more than once, that my Journal was perused by Dr. Johnson, I think it proper to inform my readers that this is the last paragraph which he read. Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro, Summum crede nefas animam præferre pudori, He repeated the lines with great force and dignity; then added, 'And, after this, comes Johnny Home, with his earth gaping, and his destruction crying:-Pooh!" While we were lamenting the number of ruined religious buildings which we had lately seen, I spoke with peculiar feeling of the miserable neglect of the chapel belonging to the palace of Holyroodhouse, in which are deposited the remains of many of the Kings of Scotland, and of many of our nobility. I said, it was a disgrace to the country that it was not repaired; and particularly complained that my friend Douglas, the representative of a great house, and proprietor of a vast estate, should suffer the sacred spot where his mother lies interred, to be unroofed, and exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather. Dr. Johnson, who, I know not how, had formed an opinion on the Hamilton side, in the Douglas cause, slily answered, "Sir, sir, don't be too severe upon the gentleman; don't accuse him of want of filial piety! Lady Jane Douglas was not his mother." He roused my zeal so much, that I took the liberty to tell him he knew nothing of the cause; which I do most seriously believe was the case. We were now "in a country of bridles and saddles," and set out fully equipped. The Duke of Argyle was obliging enough to mount Dr. Johnson on a stately steed from his grace's stable. My friend was highly pleased, and Joseph said, "He now looks like a bishop." We dined at the inn at Tarbat, and at night came to Rosedow, Second Edition.--On line 3 this note : "An honest guardian, arbitrator just, Be thou; thy station deem a sacred trust. With thy good sword maintain thy country's cause; The lie suborn'd if falsely urg'd to swear, Though torture wait thee, torture firmly bear; To forfeit honour, think the highest shame, And life too dearly bought by lost of fame; "For this and the other translations to which no signature is affixed, I am indebted to the friend whose observations are mentioned in the notes, pp. 66, and 416.” Third Edition.-On line 6 this note :-"I am sorry that I was unlucky in my quotation. But notwithstanding the acuteness of Dr. Johnson's criticism, and the power of his ridicule, the Tragedy of 'Douglas' still continues to be generally and deservedly admired.' 1 No doubt Mr. Malone. the beautiful seat of Sir James Colquhoun, on the banks of Lochlomond, where I, and any friends whom I have introduced, have ever been received with kind and elegant hospitality. Wednesday, 27th October. When I went into Dr. Johnson's room this morning, I observed to him how wonderfully courteous he had been at Inveraray, and said, "You was quite a fine gentleman, when with the duchess." He answered, in good humour, "Sir, I look upon myself as a very polite man" and he was right, in a proper manly sense of the word. As an immediate proof of it, let me observe, that he would not send back the Duke of Argyle's horse without a letter of thanks, which I copied. To his Grace the Duke of ARGYLE. "MY LORD,-That kindness which disposed your grace to supply me with the horse, which I have now returned, will make you pleased to hear that he has carried me well. "By my diligence in the little commission with which I was honoured by the duchess, I will endeavour to shew how highly I value the favours which I have received, and how much I desire to be thought, "My lord, "Your grace's most obedient, "And most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON. "" 'Rosedow, Oct. 29, 1773." The duke was so attentive to his respectable guest, that on the same day, he wrote him an answer, which was received at Auchinleck : To Dr. JOHNSON, Auchinleck, Ayrshire. "SIR,-I am glad to hear your journey from this place was not unpleasant, in regard to your horse. I wish I could have supplied you with good weather, which I am afraid you felt the want of. "The Duchess of Argyle desires her compliments to you, and is much obliged to you for remembering her commission. I am, sir, "Your most obedient humble servant, Inveraray, Oct. 29, 1773." Second Edition.- Line 7: "was" altered to "were." "ARGYLE. I am happy to insert every memorial of the honour done to my great friend. Indeed, I was at all times desirous to preserve the letters which he received from eminent persons, of which, as of all other papers, he was very negligent; and once proposed to him, that they should be committed to my care, as his Custos Rotulorum. I wish he had complied with my request, as by that means many valuable writings might have been preserved, that are now lost.* After breakfast, Dr. Johnson and I were furnished with a boat, and sailed about upon Lochlomond, and landed on some of the islands which are interspersed. He was much pleased with the scene, which is so well known by the accounts of various travellers, that it is unnecessary for me to attempt any description of it. I recollect none of his conversation, except that, when talking of dress, he said, "Sir, where I to have any thing fine, it should be very fine. Were I to wear a ring, it should not be a bauble, but a stone of great value. Were I to wear a laced or embroidered waistcoat, it should be very rich. I had once a very rich laced waistcoat, which I wore the first night of my tragedy." Lady Helen Colquhoun1 being a very pious woman, the conversation, after dinner, took a religious turn. Her ladyship defended the presbyterian mode of publick worship; upon which Dr. Johnson delivered those excellent arguments for a form of prayer which he has introduced into his "Journey." I am myself fully convinced that a form of prayer for publick worship is in general most decent and edifying. Solennia verba have a kind of prescriptive sanctity, and make a deeper impression on the mind than extemporaneous effusions, in which, as we not know what they are to be, we cannot readily acquiesce. Yet I would allow also of a certain portion of extempore address, as occasion may require. This is the practice of the French Protestant churches. And although the office of forming supplications to the throne of heaven is, in my mind, too great a trust to be indiscriminately committed to the discretion of every minister, I do not mean to deny, that sincere devotion may be experienced when joining in prayer with those who use no Liturgy. Second Edition.-Line 4: For "once proposed " read "I once proposed." • As a remarkable instance of his negligence, I remember some years ago to have found lying loose in his study, and without the cover which contained the address, a letter to him from Lord Thurlow, to whom he had made an application, as Chancellor, in behalf of a poor literary friend. It was expressed in such terms of respect for Dr. Johnson, that, in my zeal for his reputation, remonstrated warmly with him on his strange inattention, and obtained his permission to take a copy of it; by which it has probably been preserved, as the original I have reason to suppose is lost. ' Daughter of Lord Strathnaver, son to the Earl of Sutherland, |